Virginia Expands Walnut-Killing Beetle Quarantine

TO GO WITH AFP STORY:La culture du khat au Kenya: les mirages de la déesse MiraaPhoto taken January 24, 2011 shows Kenya's Mzee Isaih 72 years old, holding "Miraa" (Khat) leaves at his farm in Meru some 300 kilometres north of Nairobi.The green hills of this region-Kenya's main khat-growing hub-are covered with medium-sized trees from which growers pluck new shoots as often a once a month, where most of the produce is exported to Somalia or to Britain.AFP PHOTO/SIMON MAINA (Photo credit should read SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty Images)Credit: SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty Images

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — State agriculture officials have widened a quarantine area intended to slow the spread of a disease that attacks walnut trees.

The Thousand Cankers Disease quarantine now includes the counties of Fairfax and Prince William and the cities of Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park. These are in addition to the counties of Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover and Henrico, and the cities of Colonial Heights and Richmond. They had already been quarantined.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services says the quarantine prevents walnut plants, lumber, stumps, firewood and mulch from being moved out of those cities and counties.

The disease is spread by the invasive walnut twig beetle, which introduces a fungus into the tree that eventually kills it. There is no treatment for the disease.